Why Your Cat Won't Use the Litter Box

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. Marcia Martin and we're here at Safe Harbor Animal Rescue in Jupiter, Florida and today we are going to talk about why my cat won't use the litter box. House soiling is one of the primary reasons people bring their cat to the vet and it can be extremely frustrating to deal with. So the first thing that we start with when we have a cat that is house soiling is we look for a medical reason for him not to be using the litter box. Is there a urinary tract infection? Does he have kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, any sort of underlying medical condition that would make him not want to use the litter box. We check that first. After that we look at litter box habits. Where are your litter boxes in the house? Are they convenient to the cat? Can he find them? Can he reach them? Are they are in places that aren't scary or high traffic areas, places where he can relax when he uses his litter box. Litter boxes should not be these little tiny things they sell at the pet store. Yea, they're convenient for us but no cat wants to go in a little tiny litter box where he has to step in his own urine or feces to go to the bathroom or worse yet has to step in his friend's litter coated with feces and urine, so clean your boxes regularly, get a big box something like an under bed storage container, make sure there is at least an inch of litter in there. Check your litter. If they are not using the litter, go back to clay, studies have been done showing that cats prefer clay litter so if you are having problems not using the box go back to the clay. You can also purchase a cat attractant to help them want to go back into the litter, get multiple cat boxes and put them in places convenient for the cats. Stay away from litter boxes that have covers. It has been shown that cats really don't like those. Stay away from the self cleaning litter boxes, a) the noise scares the cats and b) sometimes urine and feces can collect in there where we can't see it but they can certainly smell it. Check your house for stress. Is there a stressor in the house. Is there a new cat in the house that is upsetting the household? Is there an illness upsetting the household? Is there a male cat outside screaming at night upsetting the household. Look for stress. Stress can be treated with natural methods, it can be treated with psychiatric drugs. It can be treated with Feel Away Spray Adapters that you can put into the wall to put out cat appeasing pheromones to help settle the stress in the household but house soiling is a multi-factorial problem. It needs to be dealt with on a number of levels and you need your veterinarian's help."